Indicia such as barcodes are employed to identify and track items in a wide variety of use cases. For example, distinct barcodes may be employed to identify each of a plurality of items, such as units packed in a crate, pallet, or the like. The barcodes may be printed on a shipping manifest or the like. Further, more than one barcode may be provided on the manifest for each unit, e.g. with each barcode for a given unit specifying a different attribute of the unit. Such barcodes can be scanned in bulk by image-based scanners, but associating the barcodes that correspond to a given unit requires time-consuming and error-prone manual intervention.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.